The feel of the rain on her face
by TheRugMaster
Summary: The old man was back again. Every time that Erin walked in to see them together, even if he was staring into the distance whilst holding her hand, she felt as though she was intruding on something intimate, something private.


**A/N Wow, an X files fanfic. I haven't written one of these in quite a long time...anyway. I don't own the characters, and to be quite honest I don't even own the plot. I saw this on a episode of casulty years ago and obviously it had quite an impact on me as I never watched the show again, but I can remember this certain plotline still. I think that the title of that episode was even the same as this one actually/ So now that we've established that I own nothing lets move on. Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin...**

The old man was back again. Erin had pulled back the curtain to see him holding her hand, speaking gently to her.

One time she'd gone in and he was singing to her. It was too low for Erin to hear properly but she could swear that she heard the words "Jeremiah" and "Bullfrog". Every time that she walked in to see them together, even if he was staring into the distance whilst holding her hand, she felt as though she was intruding on something intimate, something private.

"It's time to leave I'm afraid Mr. Mulder." She said. He looked up at her and smiled.

"Hello Miss Dowell," he said, standing. "How are you?"

"Can't complain." She replied. "How about you? How are you feeling?"

There was a pause as Mulder looked to the bed where his wife lay and then back to Erin. "Lonely" he said truthfully.

Erin felt her heart squeeze in pity. She'd befriended the lonely old man a few months ago, when his wife had first been brought in, and eventually he had begun to open up and tell Erin a few snippets about his life.

He went to Cambridge University. He used to be an FBI agent, but he never toed the line and had ended up being kicked out. He'd chased aliens and UFOs for years. When he spoke to her, it was as if he didn't expect her to believe him.

Erin didn't know how to tell him that she did.

"You know Miss Dowell," he said quietly "I dragged her up and down the country for years and she complained like mad. But what I never understood was why she stuck with it- with me. You know, she could have been a successful doctor-why the hell did she stay with me?"

Erin didn't quite know what answer he was looking for. "Because she loved you?" she suggested.

There was a ghost, a flicker of a smile on his face at that.

"Because she loved me." He repeated in a whisper. Then he looked around him in anger. "She loved me, and stuck by me through all those years when I put her through so much shit…and this is how I repay her? By sticking her in a hospital, so I can see her for three crappy hours a day, watching her life ebb away?"

He rubbed his hand over his face, looking tired and haggard. Erin had no idea what to say.

"I'm sorry." He said to the floor. "Its just-she'd hate being trapped in here. She always loved the feel of the rain on her face."

He shrugged on a long brown trench coat and left the cubicle feeling Erin behind feeling guilty, but not sure why.

~x~x~x~

Erin pulled back the curtains to Ms. Scully's cubicle. Even though she'd married Mr. Mulder years ago, she'd kept her name. Mulder had confided in Erin that they'd always called each other by their last names anyway.

She wasn't there.

Erin wrenched back the covers-she didn't know why. It wasn't as if Ms Scully could dissolve into a pile of ash.

Could she? Thinking about those cases that Mulder had told Erin about…

No, she was being stupid. She mentally shook herself and frantically ripped back the curtains that divided this cubicle from the one next to it.

"Have you seen Ms. Scully?" she asked urgently.

Mrs. DeVito nodded listlessly. "Her husband took her that way." She said dully and pointed.

"Thank you!" she called as she dashed off in pursuit.

"Ms. Scully is missing!" she yelled as she ran past the ward desk.

She could feel her heart racing and she sprinted down the corridor and down a flight of stairs. How the hell had Mulder got Scully out?

She nearly broke her neck and she skidded around a corner and into an empty wheelchair. It clicked. He'd simply scooped his wife into a wheelchair and taken off.

Even though she was red faced and panting she couldn't help but grin to herself. He had some nerve just walking out with Scully like that.

She reached the double doors of the entrance and burst from the hospital to outside.

It was raining. Hard.

She squinted, trying to see through the downpour. Nothing. A growl of thunder.

Uneasily she wrapped her arms around herself. Perhaps he hadn't left yet. Perhaps he was still in the building. Perhaps he'd used another exit.

She froze as she spotted the flap of a brown trench coat disappear around a corner. Then she took in a lungful of air and hurtled after him.

"Mr. Mulder!" she cried. "Mr. Mulder!"

Mulder stopped. He didn't turn, he didn't move. He simply stopped.

Erin breathlessly came to a halt next to him and kneeled in front of the chair to check on Ms Scully.

She was dead.

"mr. Mulder…" she said softly, so softly she didn't even know if he'd heard her over the shriek of the wind.

"She loved the feel of the rain on her face." He whispered brokenly, swaying in the gale.

The wind screamed louder, reflecting his grief, tugging at Erin's hair and clothes. She caught him as he fell.

**So there we are. My utterly non-original story. The ending was a bit abrupt I know but...er..er..I was writing like DH Lawrence!!**

**Please review and tell me what you thought of it, constructive critism appreciated. Any pointers on the style in which I write would also be very nice, but no pressure. I also like ones that tell me how fabitty fab I am. *preens* =] xXx **


End file.
